The Italian Authority said Monday that it has fined Apple over 98 million euros for abuse of its dominant market position to the detriment of companies that offer their products via its App Store.
    The authority said an investigation it conducted in coordination with the European Commission and other national competition authorities showed the "restrictive nature" of its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy - the privacy rules imposed by Apple for iOS devices on third-party developers of apps distributed through the App Store.
    It said Apple holds a super-dominant position in this market through its App Store.
    "Third-party app developers are required to obtain specific consent for the collection and linking of data for advertising purposes through Apple's ATT prompt," it said.
    "However, such prompt does not meet privacy legislation requirements, forcing developers to double the consent request for the same purpose.
    "The Authority established that the terms of the ATT policy are imposed unilaterally and harm the interests of Apple's commercial partners.

The terms were also found to be disproportionate to the achievement of the company's stated data protection objectives.
    "Since user data are a key input for personalised online advertising, the double consent request that inevitably arises from the ATT policy, as implemented, restricts the collection, linking and use of such data.
    "As a result, such double consent requirement is harmful to developers, whose business model relies on the sale of advertising space, as well as to advertisers and advertising intermediation platforms".

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